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R. Tyson Smith, Ph.D.

Broadly speaking, my research investigates how
masculine attitudes and behaviors encourage harmful health outcomes. My work
applies a social psychology lens to understand the strong association between
masculinity and violence. I am interested in how gender identity affects the way that men and
women engage in, interpret, reconcile with, and heal from violence.

As an NIMH
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rutgers University Institute for Health, I began a
mixed-method study of the informal coping mechanisms used by male and female
veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This project
investigates how the more than two million recently returned soldiers—most of
whom choose not to use the VA health care system—cope with adjustment
independent of formal health institutions. The project is guided by my interest
in the consequences of how the violence of warfare (and the military more
generally) demands a disposition of self-reliance and stoicism,
while healthful coping afterwards necessitates qualities that are largely the
opposite (i.e.: help-seeking, expression, connectivity). I am currently investigating the health experiences of American military veterans who come in contact with the criminal justice system.

My veterans research builds on earlier ethnographic research I conducted on the experience, meanings, and motivations of
men who train and perform in community-level independent pro
wrestling, where most wrestlers receive little-to-no pay. Although professional wrestling is one of the
most popular “sporting events” in the United States, people are seldom
aware of the constellation of independent promotions that operate beyond
the purview of the highly profitable, televised productions. In my book, “Fighting for Recognition”(Duke University Press) I investigate how men are motivated and affected by their acts of
violence. Indy participants’ devotion to their elaborate combat
choreography, which fakes hostility in order to excite a crowd of spectators,
illuminates the management of pain in everyday
life, the intimacy of violence, emotional labor, and the quest for solidarity and community. The analysis
provides new interpretations of the attraction,
ambivalence and pitfalls of “doing” masculinity.

Wrestling, warfare, and military service show how men and women
(largely young and working-class) manage violence, emotions, risk, and gender identity in
an era of neoliberalism—where low wages, insecure employment, and fragmented
social support are all too common. My interest lies in how people cope and
make sense of their physical or mental health in light of their participation in an exhilarating, often promising, endeavor that presents many health risks.

If I'm not doing research or teaching, there is a chance I am on twitter tweeting about sociological things @tyson987654321